Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
SPENCER
W ith a frown, I stared at the screen again before I deleted my profile on the dating app. A momentary pang of disappointment filled me again as I recalled my inability to make a connection in a sea of people.
“Good luck, Lou,” I murmured as I clicked the confirm button, wiping away any digital trace of my lousy attempt at dating.
Louise hated dating apps, and I could see why, but I had to start somewhere. I didn’t know enough people to find potential candidates for Louise.
Instead, I planned to use the dating app to locate a few. In fact, I’d considered writing a program to crawl around all of the stupid sites and find potential candidates.
Before I started to fill out the profile, I scrolled through my photo roll in search of the perfect picture of Louise. It wasn’t too difficult. Louise always looked striking in photos–she had an effortless elegance that commanded notice. It wasn’t just her pretty face or her figure, which certainly didn’t hurt, but it was the way she seemed to stand out, her lively eyes and genuine smile drawing you in.
I selected a photo where she looked professional, yet friendly, cropped myself out, and added it to her profile, hoping it would show off both her looks and her vivacious personality.
As I began to fill out the rest of the profile, the slamming of the front door startled me. I quickly powered off my display and jiggled my mouse, murmuring a command under my breath to encourage my monitor to wake up faster.
I cleared my throat and set my fingers on the keyboard, typing a few lines of code that added no value to my program, but Louise’s lack of coding knowledge would play to my advantage.
A few seconds later, a whiff of her perfume floated past me. I pretended not to notice, working away on my fake bit of code that would do nothing more than count to one hundred behind the scenes.
Behind me, she cleared her throat. I pretended to be surprised, ceasing my typing and swiveling in my chair. “Lou! You’re home early.”
The fake surprise in my voice was hardly convincing to me, but I hoped it fooled Louise.
The cat-who-caught-the-canary grin on her face slipped a little, and I wondered if something had happened. “The shopping wasn’t all I hoped for.”
“Already bought out all the stores?” I grinned at her, poking a little fun at her shopping habit.
“No,” she answered as she sashayed across the room and hopped onto my desk, her legs dangling over the side. “Mama called.”
My nose wrinkled instinctively. “How is the monster-in-law?”
“Her usual self,” Louise said, her full lips tugging into a frown. “You know, she accused me of dragging you around to social outings as if that’s a crime?”
Louise shot me an incredulous glance. If it hadn’t been her mother who’d said it, I would have agreed. Social outings were not fun. At least not for me. But since Constance Montgomery was the bane of Lou-Lou’s existence, I held back.
“Hmm,” I murmured.
Lou’s eyes went wide, and she gave me a playful slap against the arm. “Do not tell me you agree with her, Spencer Whitaker.”
“I don’t…ish.” I lifted a shoulder, a dubious expression on my face.
“Spencer!” She leapt off my desk, fists pressed against her hips.
“Well, I mean…I hate social outings, you know that. But…I hate your mother even more, so it’s a wash.”
Louise crossed her arms, frowning down at me. “I don’t know what to do with you sometimes, Spence.”
I offered her a tentative grin. “What else did Mommy dearest want?”
Louise rolled her eyes as she leaned against the desk again. “She says she needs to see me about my future.”
A muffled groaned escaped her as she pushed off the edge and began pacing. “I just know she’s going to try to pull something.”
I leaned back in my chair, twisting it back and forth to follow her ambling. “But she can’t, right?”
Louise bit her lower lip. “I don’t know.”
The concern etched in her features answered my question more than her words could. That was exactly what she was worried about.
I rose and crossed to her, rubbing her shoulders. “Lou, we did everything the right way. She can’t touch your money.”
She refused to face me, indicating that my answer hadn’t satisfied her. Was she hoping I would tell her I didn’t want to get divorced?
It didn’t matter to me, but I didn’t want to doom her to a loveless marriage, and we were too far apart in personality to fit.
“Lou, hey,” I said, twisting her around to face me. “Whatever you need, we’ll deal with it, okay?”
She sniffled, bobbing her head and offering me a sad smile. “Thanks, Spence.”
“Of course.” I smiled down at her, wiping away a tear that had fallen onto her cheek with my thumb. “So, I take it that’s what ruined your shopping excursion?”
She sniffled again, pulling away from me as she crossed to my computer chair and dropped into it. “Yes. But I had already been in a mood, so it only soured me more.”
“Already in a mood? Premonition of the call or something else?”
She rose, her mood seeming to lift a little for some unknown reason. “Why don’t I tell you over a Bloody Mary poolside?”
I winced a little, staring longingly at my now-dark computer monitor. “Oh, but…”
“Spencer, please tell me you aren’t going to sit here from now until dinner time working?”
I shoved my hands into my pockets with a shrug. “Well, I wanted to get some coding done–”
“You had all morning, Spence.”
“I know but I…got distracted.”
She arched an eyebrow. “By what?”
I wasn’t about to admit I’d been on a dating app. I licked my lips before I lifted my chin. “I was…working on that little project I told you about this morning.”
Her eyebrows arched as she stared at me. “Oh, were you now. Well, this sounds like I definitely need a drink and to hear more.”
I swallowed hard as she looped her arm through mine and dragged me out of the room. As we wandered through the house down toward the kitchen, I convinced myself to stand firm. I wasn’t going to let her talk me out of this.
If she wanted to force me into a string of bad dates with tarantula-wranglers and psychotic artists, then I’d threaten the same.
One way or another, I’d put a stop to the forced socialization.
I settled on the bar stool as Louise flitted around the kitchen making the Bloody Marys. As she poured them into glasses, she shot me a coy glance over her shoulder.
I grimaced, a shiver snaking down my spine. In light of the phone call and summons from her mother, she was still in a decent mood. Why?
For a second, I wondered if my plan may backfire. What if she actually enjoyed going on these dates I planned on setting up?
I shrugged it off as Louise stuck a stalk of celery into each drink. If she did like it, maybe I’d succeed in helping her find a real marriage. I could live with that.
She thrust the drink toward me. I accepted it, following her to the infinity pool outside and easing myself into a lounge chair.
Louise slid on her massive sunglasses as she crossed her ankles and sipped her drink. “All right, sugar, tell me all about your little plan.”
I slid my eyes sideways to her, squinting against the bright sun as I shielded my eyes. “Well, uh, I started to make a list of traits for your new mate, along with some of your own traits that I think are important.”
Her eyebrows raised about her sunglasses as she twisted to face me. “Oh? And what have you come up with?”
I shifted my weight, trying to decide what she was after. Did she want to tear apart my efforts? “Uhh, well…”
“Well, come on, Spence, I’m waiting with bated breath here.”
“I think you need someone who will love every bit of your vivacious personality,” I started.
Louise bit into her celery stalk with a chuckle. “Are you saying you don’t?”
“No, but…I could stay home more often.”
“Spence, you stay home enough. You can’t sit in your house alone all the time.”
“Well, I can,” I answered. “And I know I don’t go out enough for your taste, that’s why your new partner should love outings.”
She poked the leafy end of the celery at me. “Astute observation, Spence. What else?”
“Uhh, he should enjoy trying new things. You always like trying new things.”
“And you always hate it,” she answered, playfully.
“Well, I don’t hate it, but…I don’t want to bungee jump or…run with the bulls.”
“Hey, I don’t want to run with the bulls. But I do like a man who loves a grand adventure. I mean, isn’t that the point of this?”
I shrugged, taking another sip of my drink. “The point is to live through all of it, though.”
She clicked her tongue at me. “Oh, Spencer. Okay, well, it seems like you’re doing well so far. Did you come up with anything else?”
I stirred my drink with my celery. “Maybe I should keep some things secret.”
She grinned at me, her nose wrinkling. “Planning on surprising me, are you?”
I refused to look at her, afraid she’d see the uncertainty in my eyes. “Maybe.”
“Well, I certainly look forward to all those surprises.”
I scrunched my brow, snapping my gaze to her. “Wait a minute, I thought you told me not to do this? This morning, you raced out of here yelling at me with all that Southern sass that I was not authorized to do this.”
“I know what I said. But you know I’m a grump in the morning, darlin’. You shouldn’t think anything of it.”
“Oh, right,” I said playfully, letting my head fall back against the chair’s mesh. “Another thing to add to my list about you.”
“Not a morning person,” Louise said with a giggle. “That’s an important one.”
“Indeed.”
I sipped my drink again as a light breeze swept past us, ruffling Louise’s fiery hair and rippling the water in the pool.
“Well, sounds like you’ve got your end all figured out.”
I reminded myself that I wasn’t going to back down. I lifted my chin and nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Well, that’s excellent.”
I started to worry I’d lost my mind. Why was Louise suddenly agreeing with me?
I slid my eyes sideways, trying to figure out if she was mocking me or not.
She twisted toward me, a coy expression on her face. “So, when can I expect to start dating?”
“Oh, uh–” I stared down into the red concoction in my glass. “Shouldn’t be long. I’ve pretty much got things figured out.”
“Well, you just let me know, sugar.”
My insides twisted into a knot. Was she trying to use reverse psychology on me? Was she agreeing just so I’d back off?
“So, you’re…okay with this dating?”
“Well, one good turn deserves another, right?”
I swallowed hard. “Right. Well… expect it soon, then. Too bad your mother messed up next weekend. Those are prime dating days.”
“Oh, I know it.”
Silence stretched between us for a few moments before she polished off her drink and set the glass on the table between us. “Are you ready to hear what else happened to me today?”
I twisted toward her. “What do you mean? I thought you called it quits when your mother called?”
“Well, on the shopping, yes. I felt like I needed some pampering. So, I went to the bakery, you know the one I love, for a chocolate eclair. But they’d run out. Can you imagine?”
I could. And it wasn’t good. When she was in a funk, things not going right could send her into a downward spiral.
“Well, you can imagine that threw me into a tizzy.”
“Uh-huh,” I answered.
“And just as I was pitching a fit, this little doll pops up behind me and offers me her chocolate eclair.”
“Oh,” I said, raising my eyebrows. “That was nice.”
She patted my arm, a grin on her features. “Wasn’t it? Just so sweet and kind and nice.”
“Sounds like it,” I said with a nod. “A really good Samaritan.”
“Uh-huh. So, I bought this good Samaritan a hot chocolate and a mini donut, and we sat down to have a good old-fashioned chat.”
It seemed Louise had found a new friend. I wasn’t surprised since she’d talk to practically anyone, but I was pleased. For being so outgoing, she didn’t have many friends at all. Most of them abandoned her when she got to be “too much.”
I wondered how long the new one would last.
“And you know, she is just the loveliest little person I have ever met.”
“I’m glad you found a new friend.”
“So am I,” she said with another amused smile that faded to a more pensive expression. She paused, studying me for a moment. “And I’m not just glad for me.”
“Oh?” I furrowed my brows. “For who?”
“You, silly.” She said it with a chuckle and a surprising amount of casualness as though it was the most natural conclusion in the world.
I choked on my drink, coughing a little as I lowered the cup hastily. “Me?”
With an amused raise of her eyebrows, she puckered her lips. “Why, of course. Now, you know I’ve been encouraging you to date. And I know you’re reluctant, but this one…she’s different.”
“Louise–”
She waved off my protests with a dismissive flick of her wrist. “Come on, Spencer. I’m playing your game. Now, you have to play mine.”
“But…okay, I won’t find you any dates.”
“Oh, Spencer,” she said, disappointment in her voice. “Just meet her, see for yourself. What’s the worst that could happen?”
A myriad of awful things danced through my mind from the woman being a gold-digger who had cased the high-end shopping district for an easy mark to a deranged serial killer.
Surprise and apprehension swirled inside me. I hadn’t expected her to come up with someone this soon.
The thought of dating, especially someone Louise deemed perfect, was daunting. It felt too soon, too real.
“Louise, I’m not…I’m not ready…I–”
“Just one date, Spence. One teensy-tiny little date.” She let her fingers run up my forearm before she grabbed my hand and squeezed.
Her optimism could be infectious, but it did little to alleviate the knot of fear in my stomach. The possibility of facing another rejection was terrifying, but I couldn’t say no to the genuine hope and excitement in Louise’s eyes.
“All right,” I muttered, my head already starting to ache at the thoughts of the uncomfortable, forced conversations and awkward moments.
Louise’s face lit up like the Fourth of July. “You won’t regret it, Spence. Wait until you meet her. She’s really something special.”
She chattered on about her and potential first dates, and I nodded along, my mind racing. What had I just agreed to?
I stood on the brink of something terrifyingly wonderful to hear Louise tell it, but maybe it would turn out just plain terrifying.